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Big Time Guest Star: Chapter Two
Carlos couldn't control his curiosity.
The boys had just returned to the Palm Woods after their crazy morning session at Rocque Records.
After all hopping out of the Big Time Rush mobile, they made their way to the hotel with Logan lagging behind to browse through the blue bound booklet in his hands.
Carlos held back too and began peeking over Logan's shoulder, hoping to get a glimpse of something cool.
Logan snapped the book shut. "Carlos! You know no one else is supposed to see this. Amy said the New Town High producers are really crazy about spoilers for the show. I can't tell anyone about it. You, the guys, Mrs. Knight, even my own parents can't know!"
"I know," Carlos said, not even acting ashamed for trying to sneak a peek. "But I just really want to know. Please, please, please?"
"No," Logan frowned, tucking the book under his arm and hurrying to catch up with Kendall and James.
Carlos followed after him quickly. "Please, please, please?"
Logan groaned.
"Why do you want to see it so badly anyway?" Kendall asked, clearly more exasperated than he normally got when Carlos was constantly badgering one of them.
"Don't you?" Carlos asked pointedly.
James looked at Carlos, shaking his head emphatically to indicate to his friend that he should not be bringing that up right now.
Carlos hurried to cover his words, "Th-th-that publicist woman said I can't brood! I just want to see if I can act it out and prove that I can do it just as well as Logan can. I just wanna try, please, Logan?" Carlos practically whined.
"No," Logan said firmly, his tone allowing no room for disagreement.
"Okay, so, what're we doing!" James exclaimed, deciding a change of topic was in order.
Carlos and Kendall just shrugged but Logan was too busy paging through the script again to answer.
"Logan!" James called.
"Wha-," Logan looked up, distracted. "er... Oh, you guys go ahead. I want to start going over my lines."
"Don't you have, like, a week before you start filming?" Carlos asked.
"Yeah, but I've got a table read tomorrow, and I've never done any of this before," Logan said firmly. "I want to be ready."
"I can help ya run lines," James offered. "The producers won't mind someone else reading it if it's to help you, right? And I am, after all, the one with experience in the 'running lines' department."
"Thanks, but-" Logan smiled to himself, "I got this."
James frowned.
"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Kendall finally asked, addressing the situation with Logan for the first time.
Carlos and James were relieved that Kendall didn't sound too upset or angry. Of course, Kendall rarely got angry at any of them, least of all Logan. But this situation was a little more tricky than usual.
"Sure, I mean, it's just a role," Logan shrugged. "It'll be fun. Who knows? Maybe I'll like acting?"
"But, you know you can't act, right?" Kendall said gently, coming to a stop when they reached the Palm Woods' entrance. "You do remember Peter Pan in the third grade?"
"I was eight, that doesn't count," Logan 'psh'ed, stopping too.
"You couldn't stop blushing and looking at the audience. You even giggled. You over enunciated everything you said. Face it, Loge, you can't act." Kendall said shaking his head regrettably, like he already knew he had successfully convinced Logan not to do it.
Logan 'psh'ed again. "Did you see me play my own grandma? I'm so ready for this!"
"But-but-but-but—" Kendall stuttered.
"Relax," Logan reassured. "What's the big deal anyway? It's just acting."
"He's just worried you're gonna have to kiss Jo," Carlos said bluntly.
"Carlos!" James squawked.
"What?" Carlos asked innocently.
"No, it's fine," Kendall said, sighing. "He's right."
"It's just acting, Kendall," Logan insisted. "You know I don't like Jo like that."
"I know," Kendall said, nodding, but barely looking in Logan's direction.
"So no worries then, right?" Logan asked, giving Kendall a shoulder bump. "If it makes you feel any better, what I read doesn't say anything about a kiss."
Kendall gave a small smile.
"Not yet anyway. There are three episodes though!" Carlos pointed out.
Kendall stopped smiling.
James yelped, "Carlos!"
"What?"
Carlos decided he was going to practice his brooding.
He was sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby. He kept looking at all the people making their way through. Every time he saw someone with a brooding, or 'serious' expression on their face, he tried to copy it.
"What's wrong?" Katie asked in her usual reluctant deadpan—the one that said she knew she probably wouldn't like the answer but she should ask him anyway.
"Nothing," Carlos said.
"You're sitting there pouting," she said. "Something must be wrong."
"I'm brooding," he explained slowly, like he was talking to a two year old.
"Looks more like pouting to me," she shrugged.
Carlos sighed and gave up. "How do you brood?"
"Well, most brooders are like serious people who have a lot of difficult, tough things on their mind… like doctors, lawyers, and even police officers," Katie rambled. "Maybe watch them and figure it out? James would probably tell you to practice your facial expressions in a mirror. That way you'd know you were really brooding. Oh! And vampires! They are classic brooders!"
"You just want me to watch Twilight with you again!" Carlos said with disgust.
"I do not!" she insisted. "Just, whatever you're trying to do, quit it. You look like Buddha Bob whenever Lightning hides his plunger," she indicated toward Carlos' bushy beard hair and his obvious pout.
"I do not!" Carlos parroted.
"Seriously, I don't know what's worse," she grumbled. "You guys seeing who can grow the most facial hair in a month or the time you guys tried to see who could hold their bladder the longest!"
Carlos and Katie both remembered clearly:
Kendall took off for the bathroom first that morning, unable to withstand Carlos' waterfall sounds. Everyone shouted "Behold, Kendall Knight, ye of Tiniest Bladder!" as he ran for the restroom.
Logan followed soon after, right before they had to leave for class, claiming it wasn't healthy to hold one's bladder that long anyway.
Carlos and James had been the two hold outs.
"You're never gonna beat me," James smirked at Carlos. "I've got this!"
"I once drank two large sodas during the Return of the King, which was three hours long, and I didn't leave the theater once because I didn't want to miss anything!" Carlos boasted.
James smirked. "Well, I never go to the bathroom anywhere but at home, so I can hold it as long I need to. I've got mad skills."
And the contest went on… and on. The contest had started in the morning after breakfast and it still continued throughout the short school day.
James sat perfectly still in his seat seemingly unbothered while Carlos tapped his foot on the floor incessantly which received a couple reprimands from Miss Collins.
And they both continued to hold out all the way up until dance rehearsal. Kendall and Logan kept giving Carlos worried looks, afraid at any minute he was going to spring a leak on one of them. Mr. X pointed toward the restroom and ordered Carlos to 'go pee pee' when the boy started doing an uncontrollable 'pee dance'.
Carlos remained firm, even doing squats to alleviate the pressure.
Then Mr. X said something about 'dogs marking their X-territory' and Carlos couldn't stop laughing. He ran for the restroom Mr. X pointed out, only to watch Gustavo come out with a firm warning, "Do not go in there."
Carlos raced for the other restroom down the hall, cursing Roque Records for having private single restrooms when the next door he came to was locked and obviously in use.
Out of options, he did what he always did in troublesome situations.
What would Kendall do?
Gustavo hadn't been pleased when he found himself in need of another new desk.
It wasn't until the boys arrived home after practice that evening that James finally went to the restroom with a wink and a shotgun hand sign, "Told ya!"
Katie and Carlos came back to reality and Carlos winced, remembering how Gustavo yelled at him for destroying his desk.
"Definitely the bladder thing," Carlos said. "So, brooding…"
"I'm out!" Katie held up her hands in surrender and sprinted for the elevator.
"Brooding means being serious and having tough decisions to make…" he whispered to himself, thinking hard, "like police officers…Ooh!" he snapped his fingers in delight. "I know!"
Logan cleared his throat nervously as he waited for someone to answer the door to 4J.
"This is a bad idea," he whispered to himself. "No, it's a great idea. No, bad! No, good!"
He really could be a bit indecisive.
He stood up straight as the door finally opened.
"Logan?" Camille asked, she noticed the booklet in his hands almost instantly.
"Hi, there, how… how have you been?" he asked, nervously.
"Good… what's up? What's that?" she asked, nodding at the script in his hands.
"Well, I, uh, Gustavo said one of us has to play this part on New Town High and…" he held up the script with a sheepish grin. "I'm the lucky one… so I was sorta, uh…wondering if you might want to help me run lines?"
"Oh, well…sure," she said hesitantly. "A part on New Town High? Not bad for your first role."
"Right," he nodded, agreeing, still standing awkwardly in the doorway. "But no one else is supposed to know about the script. They said I could die if anything was leaked, and I really don't—"
"—want to die," she finished for him. She nodded her head. "I know the drill," she said, waving her hand dismissing his words. "Spoilers are public enemy number one for television shows."
"So… when would you want to go over it with me…?" Logan asked. "I have my first table read tomorrow, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do."
He shifted uncomfortably when she stared at him slightly longer than one normally would. She stared as if she was trying to decide something. She seemed to finally reach a decision.
"I'm about to have dinner with my dad. But… how's… tonight? Meet me in the lobby in a couple hours?" she offered.
"Great," he nodded and grinned. "See ya then."
"Yeah…" she said, as she started closing the door. "See ya…" she closed the door completely.
He raised his arms in a victory cheer.
"HUZZAH!"
"Why wouldn't he want to read lines with me?" James complained. "I mean, what, does he think he can do it all by himself? Even Camille gets people to run lines with her. Does he think its' all just gonna magically seep into his brain like…like… what's that word we learned in science last week?"
"Osmosis," Kendall mumbled, rolling his eyes at James while continuing to fumble his thumbs over the controller.
James moved his thumbs just as furiously over his own controller.
"Right, osmosis," James nodded. "So, why?"
"Maybe he's just taking that spoiler thing to heart," the blonde muttered, attention still completely focused on the game.
"But I'm completely trustworthy…I am, right?" James asked.
He stopped playing suddenly and Kendall let out a 'whoop' when he won.
"That's it, isn't it?" James jumped up, starting a mini-freak out.
"That's what?" Kendall looked up, confused.
"I'm not trustworthy anymore!" the taller boy whined.
"What are you talking about?" the blonde was now more confused than ever.
"I kissed his girlfriend!" James moaned. "Of course he doesn't trust me!"
"James, stop. And it's ex-girlfriend," Kendall forced a reassuring smile. "And that was months ago. Before Christmas, before Halloween even! You know he's forgiven you for that. Of course he trusts you. He's just following the rules. You know how Logan gets."
"Right, right," James nodded, almost accepting Kendall's words as truth. "Logan loves rules. He's a stickler for the rules. If there's a code of conduct, Logan follows it to a capital 'T'!" James crossed his fingers in a 'T' for emphasis.
"Exactly, so there's no need to wor—"
"The Bro-Code!" James squeaked suddenly.
"—ry… say what?" Kendall was back to being confused.
"I broke the bro-code! No wonder he doesn't trust me!" James was clearly upset.
"Why is this bothering you now?" Kendall wondered. "You—"
"Enough of that!" James cut his friend off. "I have to make him trust me again… Oh!" he lit up like he had the best idea in the world.
"I'm out," Kendall said, throwing his hands up before taking off out of the room.
All eyes were on the door to 1G, focusing in on every single little detail.
"No sign of forced entry, what do you think McPhee?"
"There are little scratches by the key hole, Tony. Tom? What do you think?"
"Interesting."
"Cool!" Carlos said enthusiastically, poking his head in between two of the three and attempting to frown in the same way as the others.
The Teen NCSIs all turned to look at the intruder.
Tom, the dark haired male who kept his head covered with a baseball cap that read NCIS in blaring yellow letters, held up his hands, palms facing Carlos and spoke slowly, "Step away from the crime scene."
Carlos backed up a couple steps. "Crime scene? But there's no yellow tape."
"There will be," Tony, the cocky blonde who looked a lot like Matt Czuchry said.
"Why?" Carlos asked.
The trio looked at each other then must have decided that Carlos was cool considering his band had played Rocktober Fest and got them all VIP tickets to the event.
Gabby McPhee, the brunette, brushed her hair behind her ear and leaned in to whisper, "The person who lives here is missing!"
"Really?" Carlos said loudly.
"Shh!" the brunette whispered. "This is a very serious situation. You must remain calm!"
Carlos nodded, his eyes widening slightly and he whispered, "Serious, huh? Can I help?"
The blonde cocked his head to the side. "What do you know about Bitters?"
"Hotel manager, annoying, hates parties because he's never been invited to one, stole my french fries once," Carlos listed. "Why?"
The brunette girl leaned forward to whisper again, "We think he's behind the missing kids!"
"Missing kids? As in more than one?" Carlos asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, so look," the blonde cocked his head to the side and fiddled with his 'swaggerific' shades dangling from the V in his shirt. "I'm Tony, the Lieutenant of this team," he indicated toward the other two.
"I'm McPhee, well Gaby. But call me McPhee," the brunette said sharply. "And this is my brother, Tom."
"You don't call him McPhee too?" Carlos asked, looking at the tall boy who, if he wasn't mistaken, looked like he got collagen implants in his lips. But maybe that was just this town getting to him. He shook his head to focus on Tony who was starting to talk again.
"No," the blonde said with authority, answering for the taller boy like it was something he did all the time with his take charge attitude, before rolling his eyes. "We'd appreciate the help but we really shouldn't involve civilians…"
"You could deputize me!" Carlos said desperately. "You can do that… right?" He asked it almost like a challenge.
Tony looked at Gaby who shrugged.
"Absolutely," Tony agreed even though he really had no idea if he could deputize anyone into the NCIS or not. "You can be my deputy, Garcia."
"Sweet!" Carlos raised his hand in a victorious fist pump.
Logan sat at a table in the Palm Woods lobby situated in a back corner. He kept looking down at the script laid out on the table before him, checking his watch, giving a quick glance around the lobby, then turning his attention back to the script for all of one minute before repeating the process again.
He was in the middle of checking his watch for the umpteenth time when a large stack of books dropped on the table right next to his hand with a loud thump!
Logan jumped and stared over the stack to see James grinning triumphantly.
"James? What's this?"
"Research!" James replied, winking.
Logan picked up the top book and did a double take.
"Acting for Young Actors: The Ultimate Teen Guide…" he read the title out loud. He looked at the next book. "Movement for Actors…" went to the next book, "Emotion on Demand…" and to the next, "Child Star… by Shirley Temple?"
Logan raised an eyebrow and looked at James. "You researched acting techniques?"
"Yep!" James said proudly.
"You went to a library?" Logan said, unable to control the disbelief creeping into his voice.
"Uh huh," James nodded his head, smile still beaming like the L.A. sun.
"And you did this because…?" Logan was confused.
James looked confused himself now, like he couldn't understand why Logan didn't understand. "For you," he rolled his eyes. "For someone so smart, you really have your idiot moments."
"But… why?" the smart one asked.
"Because," James explained patiently, "this acting thing is awesome, but I know you, you have to research everything before doing anything. I had some time, so figured I'd help out my bud. They have this book with one hundred and seventy five acting games in it!" He pulled it out of the pile and, sure enough, the title read 175 Theater Games: Warm-up exercises for Actors. "We can totally do it! Want to try some?"
"I, I, uh, I can't right now, James," Logan glanced around the lobby, still not seeing his 'lines' partner for the evening, but it was still early. "Thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it. Can you take the books up to my room? I really need to just focus on reading the script right now. We can do one of those games later?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," James said quickly, looking only slightly disappointed. .
"What's all that?" a new, very female voice, interrupted the two.
Logan jumped and James whirled, managing to knock a couple books onto the floor.
Camille helped pick up the ones that fell and read the top book out loud. "Hollywood Bad Boys: Loud, Fast, and Out of Control? Ohkay?"
"Oh, and there's, like, three books on James Dean," he whispered as an aside to Logan. To Camille, he said, "Because Logan's playing a bad boy on New Town High. He got a part on the show!" he explained proudly.
Logan just raised an eyebrow.
"So I heard," Camille said, settling into the chair across from Logan.
She reached out and pulled the script from in front of Logan across the table to her. "Ready to start? I can't help too long. I have a really early audition in the morning."
"Yeah," Logan nodded. "James?" he smiled apologetically.
James opened his mouth to argue then shut it. "Right," James finally said, grabbing the books off the table. "Takin' these to 2J."
"Thanks again, buddy," Logan said, relieved James didn't point out the earlier argument about getting help.
"So, which page does your character come in on?..."
"You mean, you knew for a week and didn't tell me?" Kendall asked, perplexed, scratching and tugging on his beard in annoyance. He couldn't wait til the month was up so they could finally all shave. He wasn't too happy that Logan was probably going to win though.
Jo had finally come home after a long day of shooting and had just wanted to see her boyfriend before turning in for the night. She was apparently going to have to soothe some ruffled feathers first. She didn't want to do it in the front entrance of the Palm Wood's hotel, so she was slowly inching toward the elevators, trying to get Kendall to follow her, which he did at a snail's pace.
"I couldn't," she insisted. "It seemed like they were going to do it, but nothing was certain until today. And even now I can't say much about it."
"But, this is… it's another publicity stunt, Jo," he complained. "And don't deny it, because it is!"
"I know it's a publicity stunt," she explained. "But this is one you can't mess with."
"Why not?" he stopped in the middle of the lobby, not moving any more at this point.
"Because if we don't do it, the fans are going to hate me," she said, stopping as well.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"The fans of the show want Rachel and Drake together, but the writers aren't ready to put them together yet, so they had the ghost storyline for Drake's character, and now they want to have another little love interest for Rachel to combat Drake's story," she said.
"What does this have to do with Logan though?" he wanted to know. "And why did they say I couldn't do it?"
"The fans would absolutely hate Rachel if she started seeing some random person. Lots of bad publicity. And they couldn't put you on the show because that would be even worse publicity since we date in real life and the fans would hate you and me, as in us, not the characters,"
"So… why Logan?" he still wanted to know.
"Well…" she bit her lip.
"Oh, this is going to be good," he stared her down for the answer.
. + . + .
Meanwhile, sitting across the room…
"So… you're in a band?" Camille asked.
"Yep," Logan grunted, because apparently his character, Gabe, was barely paying any attention as the female kept asking him questions.
"My friend was telling me all about your band," Camille continued. "I would love to see you live."
"Friday. El Dorado's," Logan grunted again.
"See ya there," Camille said.
"Later," Logan shrugged. "…and then I just walk away. The script says go through a door. Seems sort of easy. That's only the first scene, but I have all of four words. Hopefully the others are the same."
"Yeah…" Camille trailed off, flipping through the script to find his next scene.
"The other scripts will probably be different, I mean, do you really think they'll keep giving me four words in each scene for three entire episodes?" he asked her.
Camille stopped reading and looked up. "Did you just say three episodes?"
"Yeah," he shrugged. "That's what they said."
Camille leaned forward slowly. "You mean to tell me, you are going to be in a three episode arc as a love interest for the main female character in the first season of a CW SHOW!" she got much louder toward the end.
Logan flinched at her loudness. "Uh, yeah? What's wrong? You can help with all three, right?"
Camille slammed the book shut as best one could when the book had no hard cover and consisted of just papers. She stood up and tossed the script across the table at him. "Uh, no, no thank you."
She turned and started walking quickly away from him.
"Camille!" he stood up, grabbed the script, and went after her. "Camille, I don't get it, what's wrong?"
She turned around and slapped him, hard!
"Ow!" he held his jaw. "What was that for?.."
. + . + .
"Speculation," Jo answered. "They want Logan to do it because of who he is…"
"Because he's in a band? Or…" Kendall's eyes widened as he realized, "because he's in a band with me, and is one of my best friends. That's why, isn't it?"
Jo just nodded.
"They're doing this so fans of your show will wonder if something is going on between you and Logan in real life and be on the edge of their seats wondering what I think about it, so they won't have time to worry about your character, is that why?" Kendall was getting more whiney as he got more upset. "Joooo," he moaned. "Are they going to plaster both your faces across gossip magazines and I'll see it everywhere? Seriously?"
"It's just a publicity stunt," she said gently. "And it will help the show, my character, and the band… not to mention that Logan gets less attention than the other guys. It'll be good for him too."
Kendall started to reply but was interrupted by a loud screech.
"A CW SHOW!"
Kendall and Jo looked a few feet away to where Camille was yelling at Logan who was clutching his face like he just got slapped.
"Camille, I don't know what that means," Logan said.
"Oh, I'll tell you what that means!" Camille looked like she was about to advance on Logan.
"Camille! Stop!" Jo went over to hold the brunette back, Kendall following closely behind.
"Oh, do not touch me," Camille said to Jo, clearly disgusted with her. "A three episode arc as a love interest in the first season of a CW show? Did you actually agree to that?"
Jo glanced at Logan and Kendall who were both completely confused now. She looked back at Camille, eyes almost pleading.
"Camille, we should go talk about this somewhere else."
"No, I want to know if you agreed to it! You're supposed to be my best friend! Why would you agree to that!" Camille wouldn't stop glaring at Jo.
"Of course I didn't agree to it!" Jo insisted. "You know how it works. I never get to choose any of my co-stars."
"I still don't get why this is such a big deal," Logan interrupted.
Kendall nodded. "Yeah, neither do I."
"And they may not do it anyway," Jo finished, still answering Camille, clearly not wanting to answer the guys.
Camille looked at the guys. "Blair from Gossip Girl, Haley from One Tree Hill? Oh! I know, even though it was from when the CW was still the WB, but this is the best example! Look up when Simon Rex was on Felicity!"
"Who?" the guys asked simultaneously.
"Camille!" Jo nearly squeaked. "My show isn't Degrassi! And I've told them I don't want to do that. And hello, neither of us are eighteen!"
"Why would we need to be eighteen…" Logan trailed off, squinting his eyes and starting to get really uncomfortable with this topic. "I think I'm ready for one of James' acting games. I'm out!"
He ran for the elevator, pulling out his phone as he frantically pushed the buttons on the wall and in his hand. He practically shouted into the phone when it was answered. "Gustavo, we need to talk." The elevator doors closed in front of him.
"Well, that was unexpected," Kendall said, looking after his friend from a distance, still not quite getting it.
"Camille." Jo turned back to the brunette. "They won't do it. Okay? I know they won't do it. Yes, they talked about it, and yes, they want to do it, but they won't!"
"You better hope they don't!" Camille fumed. "I'm out!" She stomped off to catch the next elevator up.
"What was that about?" Kendall asked.
"You know what? I think they had the right idea," Jo said, her patience completely gone. "I'M OUT!"
"..and who is Simon Rex?" he asked, completely clueless once again.
To be continued…